BusinessWire
December 06, 2005 07:35 AM US Pacific Timezone

PLX Technology Announces Market's Only PCI Express Bridge to Upgrade Industry Standard Local-Bus Designs; PEX 8311 Provides Designs with Smooth Upgrade from PCI to PCI Express

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 6, 2005--PLX Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:PLXT), the leading supplier of PCI Express(TM) (PCIe) and other standard input/output (I/O) interconnect silicon to the communications, server, storage, embedded control, and consumer industries, today announced the PEX 8311, the industry's only bridging device dedicated to upgrading standard processor, DSP, and FPGA bus interface designs to PCIe. The newest member of the PLX(R) ExpressLane(TM) family of PCIe switches and bridges, the feature-rich PEX 8311 provides the power and flexibility of PCIe to embedded designs spanning the video, imaging, communications, and industrial-control markets.

The PEX 8311 provides an efficient conversion between a parallel, low-overhead local bus and the serial, packet-based PCIe interconnect, allowing users to add a scalable, high-bandwidth interconnect to a wide variety of root complex- or endpoint-based applications. These applications include:

-- video systems, such as surveillance cameras and security products that take advantage of the PEX 8311's PCIe flexible connectivity;

-- communication systems enabled by the bridge's high-throughput efficiency; and

-- industrial-control and medical-imaging systems using the PEX 8311's full-featured dual DMA channels.

The PEX 8311's direct-memory-access (DMA) capability improves the performance of these applications; the DMA offloads from the host CPU the burdensome computational tasks required for transferring data between the PCIe port and the CPU-independent local bus standard used in many processor, DSP, and FPGA designs. Such local bus designs allow glue-less data connections between these devices and the PEX 8311.

"With the PEX 8311, PLX is empowering designers to quickly enter the PCI Express market with an economical solution to adapt existing designs to this rapidly growing interconnect technology, while simplifying the process of blending it with the wide range of FPGAs, DSPs and CPUs designers are now using," said John Gudmundson, senior product marketing manager at PLX. "This market is especially attractive to designers and manufacturers at a time when industry experts predict PCI Express designs will grow to hundreds of millions of units in coming years."(1)

Cost-Efficient, Additional Features, Ease of Design, Interoperability

The PEX 8311 provides a cost-effective, off-the-shelf alternative to programmable solutions; using the device to bridge between PCIe and a local bus can save up to 50 percent of the cost of programmable solutions, with no IP expenses or added design time. Additionally, the PEX 8311 delivers features not found in IP for programmable devices, such as two independent data-transfer channels for simultaneous bidirectional traffic, simultaneous Direct Master and Direct Slave modes, four general-purpose I/Os to program/control other system ICs, a read-ahead mode and zero-wait-state bursts for high throughput, and integrated SerDes physical-layer (PHY) interfaces that eliminate the need for a separate PHY device.

Compatibility Conserves Software Investment, Development Tools Speed Designs

The bridge is supported by PLX's Rapid Development Kit (RDK) line of tools; the PEX 8311RDK includes a proven, working hardware platform incorporating the PEX 8311, a complete set of board schematics, symbols, and layout files for hardware design. The kit also features an extensive software development kit that includes a graphical utility for access to chip registers, sample drivers and a support library for Microsoft(R) (Nasdaq:MSFT) Windows(R) and Linux operating systems.

PLX Leads PCIe Interconnect Market

The introduction of the PEX 8311 further extends PLX's leadership in PCIe technology, a position reflected in its role as the supplier of the industry's broadest array of PCIe switches and bridges. Unlike vendors of PCIe devices with limited flexibility, PLX offers an array of PCIe switches and bridges that enable board and system manufacturers to choose the devices that meet their specific system requirements.

Availability, Pricing

The PEX 8311 comes in a 337-pin, plastic BGA package, and initial samples are available now, with production expected in March 2006. Available in a lead-free package, the bridge is priced at under $25 in volume quantities. The PEX 8311RDK is available now and is priced at $495.

About PLX Technology

PLX Technology, Inc. (www.plxtech.com), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., USA, is the leading supplier of PCI Express and standard I/O interconnect silicon to the communications, server, storage, embedded-control, and consumer industries.

(1)"Emerging Chip Interconnections Poised For Growth" -- In-Stat, October 2005

ExpressLane, PLX and the PLX Technology logo are registered trademarks of PLX Technology, Inc., which may be registered in some jurisdictions. All other product names that appear in this material are for identification purposes only and are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.